


Enough For Now

by kay_emm_gee



Series: the princess and the rover (tumblr prompts) [7]
Category: The Shannara Chronicles (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 03:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6103231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_emm_gee/pseuds/kay_emm_gee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the foot of the platform, where the draining blood was beginning to pool, lay Eretria in a slumped, crumpled ball.</p>
<p>E r e t r i a !</p>
<p>Each letter seemed to echo off the chamber walls like it was its own word, stretched to its breaking point by the sharp pitch and panic of Amberle’s scream.</p>
<p>{ An alternate ending to 1x09 }</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enough For Now

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Eretria protecting Amberle and being fatally injured in the process, basically almost dying, leading to both of them admitting their feelings for each other
> 
> a/n: A little bit of a twist on what was requested, because 1x09 placed Eretria in similar state, so I went with a divergence of that circumstance. Warning for sorta heavy descriptions of blood.

Just as Amberle was about to step forward into the blood-red light, someone pushed her out of the way. Swiping out with her knife, she expected to see one of the guardian women restraining her. Instead Wil lurched back from her blade, then shoved her further aside until she was too far away to stop him from leaping into the light himself.

“Wil!” she screamed as he dissolved before her eyes. “What the _hell_  are you doing?”

With sorrowful eyes, he held up the seed, which he had apparently stolen from her at some point in the tunnels. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t let you–I’d rather it was me than you who risked this.”

And then he was gone, gone to take the seed into the Bloodfire, gone and leaving her alone.

_Not alone_.

She whipped around, looking to the dais with the needle, but Eretria was no longer there. For half a heartbeat, Amberle expected the girl to jump from behind her, spurting a sarcastic comment or snarky laugh about not being aware enough of her surroundings. Even in their darkest hours, Eretria had never lost that defiant spark that lit a fierce warmth inside Amberle.

Instead, the chamber was silent except for the drip of blood running off the dais. It made the stone shine with its red slickness, covering so much around her _–_ so much blood on so much stone.

_Too much._

Amberle’s stomach lurched sickeningly as she began to taste the tang of Eretria’s blood in the air. Licking her lips, she finally glanced away from the dais, and that was when her heart stopped completely.

At the foot of the platform, where the draining blood was beginning to pool, lay Eretria in a slumped, crumpled ball.

_E r e t r i a !_

Each letter seemed to echo off the chamber walls like it was its own word, stretched to its breaking point by the sharp pitch and panic of Amberle’s scream.

“No, no, nonono, _no_ ,” she exclaimed, hurriedly gathering the rover up in her arms. Her head rolled limply with the motion, her eyes closed and her face much too pale.

“No!” Amberle screamed, shaking her. “No! You wake up, Eretria. You _wake up._  Wake up, wake up, wakeupwakeupwakeup.”

Her vision blurred, hot tears gathering as the girl remained cold and motionless in her arms. 

“Wake up,” she pleaded in a barely-there whisper, knocking her forehead to Eretria’s. Her fingers grew sticky as she clutched her blood-soaked shirt. Rocking back and forth, she murmured senseless words of pleading and promising to get the girl to open her eyes. Her breath bounced back onto her lips because her mouth was so close to Eretria’s cheek, and her chest heaved with greater fervor and frequency the longer she waited for any sign of life.

Then finally, _finally_  she felt breath on her own cheek, breath that wasn’t hers. Choking out a sob, she straightened up, giving the slowly reviving Eretria room to breathe.

“You’re alive,” she rasped out thickly when the girl’s eyes blinked open for more than a few seconds.

“So are you. Somehow I find that the more surprising outcome,” Eretria got out haltingly in between pained gasps. 

Amberle managed to release a sobbing laugh at that, somehow warm with relief that even coming back from the brink of death, her rover girl could manage to make a joke. 

Soon Eretria was struggling to sit, and Amberle helped, refusing to let go even when she glared at her. She just glared back, tugging her a little closer until she was slumped against her side and entirely encircled by her arms.

“I almost lost you,” she couldn’t help but whisper into her hair.

Eretria’s breath hitched. “What?”

Amberle looked down at her unflinchingly. “I. almost. lost. you.”

“So?”

“I can’t lose you.” Amberle said, her voice cracking. “No matter what happens, I can’t–I can’t–”

Too overwhelmed, she pressed her lips together, willing herself to hold back tears for something that had almost happened, and might just happen again on their dangerous journey.

“I can’t lose you either.” The words were so soft, so hesitant, but Amberle locked onto them, locked onto Eretria’s vulnerable gaze.

Neither of them might be able to say more than that, not in their state, but there was something she could do to show more. So, with deliberate slowness, Amberle leaned down and pressed her mouth softly against Eretria’s. It wasn’t the kiss she wanted to give–that one was full of fire and promise and passion and roughness–but this one, this soft little declaration, was all she could manage at the moment.

From the way Eretria relaxed underneath her, then tightened her hand on her hip meaningfully, however, it seemed she understood.

They were at death’s door, with a missing friend to find and the end of days upon them. There wasn’t time for more than this–the barest brush of lips on lips–but it was enough in this moment, enough for now. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit [my main blog](http://kay-emm-gee.tumblr.com) for Princess Rover + Bellarke/The 100 and [my sideblog](http://clexastories.tumblr.com) for Clexa!


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